Everyone wants to sell their home quickly, for top dollar, and with the most favorable terms possible. The appeal of your home to prospective buyers is key in making this happen. Buyers need to be able to imagine their family living in the home, they need to believe the house has been well taken care of and it has to give them that subconscious ‘warm fuzzy’ feeling. There are a few simple things you can do as a home seller to help make this happen.
- Ensure your house smells nice. Be thoughtful about what you cook while your home is on the market
- Leave all window treatments open to allow for maximum natural light
- If it will be dark when the showing occurs leave at least a couple of lights or lamps on in the home and leave exterior lights on. Nothing is more unnerving than walking into an unfamiliar dark house.
- Make yourself scarce! Prospective buyers don’t feel as comfortable poking around your house if you are there watching them.
- Take your pets and any pet items with you when you leave the house for showings.
- Leave all room doors open to ensure buyers don’t miss anything
- Clean well, make all beds, wash rugs, wipe down counters and sinks in bathrooms and kitchens.
- Consider a bouquet of fresh flowers for your kitchen or dining room table to make your house feel homey.
A great tip for making last-minute showings a bit easier is to keep an empty laundry basket handy so that if you don’t have time to put away the day-to-day clutter before the showing you can toss it all into the laundry basket and take it out of the door with you.
Generally, showings will be scheduled for a one hour window so you will need to plan to be gone from your home for about an hour and 15 minutes (you will want to leave 15 minutes prior to the showing time in case the buyers arrive early!) so it might be a good idea to have a list of places to go in mind so you don’t find yourself driving around aimlessly with your pets and kids for an hour – that isn’t very much fun ?
